Blogging Your Heart's Desire
How to create characters readers will care about — giving them clear goals, believable flaws, and showing rather than telling who they really are.
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Last week I was at the Self Publishing Show Live conference at County Hall in London – my second time at the event – and I came away even more inspired than last year. It was brilliant to be surrounded by so many passionate, enterprising writers. If you’ve never been, I can highly recommend it! […]
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Another month, and another of our authors’ Round Robins. This month, our topic has been set by author Connie Vines Chapter One: Hooking the reader and setting the tone of the story As Connie says in our topic title, the opening has to hook the reader and it has to set the tone of the […]
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Another month, and another of our authors’ Round Robins. This month, author Skye Taylor has set our interesting topic: What do you enjoy about writing and reading blended genres (otherwise known as literary mash-ups)? When I was a teenager – many years ago now – I’d go to my local library or bookshop and find […]
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The First Line Is Not a Warm-Up What opening lines should do—and why many writers get them wrong I’ve just finished reading a batch of
Another month, and another authors’ Round Robin. This month our topic is set by author Skye Taylor… Using the senses in writing: how important is it to draw the reader in to experience what your characters are seeing, hearing, smelling, etc? I’ve thought long about this one and my feeling is, reading is a different […]
It’s my first authors’ Round Robin of the year, and this month our topic is… Using Goal, Motivation and Conflict to add tension to your story All stories are about people, because human beings love to hear stories about other human beings. At their heart, the most engrossing stories are about a character who wants… Continue reading How Goal, Motivation and Conflict add essential tension to your story
It’s another month, and another authors’ Round Robin. And this month the topic is… Setting the scene This seems a simple topic. A scene is just a scene, isn’t it? Just a few lines of description and then move on to the more interesting plot and dialogue. In fact skilful scene-setting can enrich the plot,… Continue reading 7 tips for setting the scene in your novel (and bringing it to life)
Another month, another writers’ Round Robin. And this month our topic is a question many novel writers have grappled with at some point. How do you fix a saggy middle? Imagine you’re a writer with a killer opening. You spend the next few chapters setting up your characters and the premise of the novel. You… Continue reading 7 tips to tighten the saggy middle of your story and keep readers engaged
This month’s authors’ Round Robin is all about character, and the inspiration for the topic comes from author Connie Vines. Jane Eyre, James Bond, Harry Potter, Fagin, Bridget Jones and Anne of Green Gables – human beings are always interested in the story of other human beings, and we remember the characters in a story… Continue reading Making Readers Care: 9 Tips on Crafting Compelling Characters